


Rules are for the Living

by My_Untold_Lies



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Hunting, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, Running Away, Sabriel Big Bang 2018, Slash, doing things the human way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 01:58:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 18,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15985172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_Untold_Lies/pseuds/My_Untold_Lies
Summary: Gabriel is Sam’s guardian angel. It’s not usually done, having one of the Archangels be someone’s guardian but Sam has always been special. When he gets kicked out by John Gabriel has decisions to make, like how closely does he have to follow the rules when everyone thinks he’s dead.





	1. Chapter 1

[](http://imgur.com/6ANnvQt)

Gabriel hid himself on the roof of the motel the Winchester’s were currently staying in. He had arrived in a flurry of wings as soon as he started to feel the distress that was washing off Sam in waves. The others were giving off less distinct emotions that he had trouble distinguishing. Human emotions were strange, even after all these centuries.

The kid had turned 18 months ago, and he had been fantastically excited about receiving his acceptance to Stanford. The kid had always been brilliant, and Gabriel was incredibly proud of his charge for having done so well in school despite they way he had been brought up. Even he understood that children needed stability, something his charge had never received. He understood John, why he wasn’t able to provide that, why he demanded obedience. In many ways John was like his own father. Though that was not something he liked to think about.

He watched Sam fly out of the hotel room and into the desolate parking lot. All the kid had on him was his duffel bag and his backpack. He could hear the frantic thoughts racing around in the young man’s head. It was so disjointed it took him a few moments to piece it together. He was appalled by what he was able to understand. John had been terrible to his child, a cord that struck far too close to home for his own comfort. And now Gabriel had to decide what to do.

His strongest inclination, what his instincts were telling him, was something very much against the rules. He had been given the duty to protect this young man, it was not supposed to have been his job. Not even close. He was the messenger, not some guardian. But he had felt compelled to go to the child the moment he was born, he had felt compelled throughout the years to keep him safe. And considering that the boy was the offspring of hunters that was difficult. With this responsibility came its long standing rules, though he had not been good a following those for the last several centuries, he could feel their pull in the opposing direction of his instincts.

He was not allowed to let his charge know he was protected. He was not allowed to interfere if the situation was not life threatening. He couldn’t do anything to jeopardize his charges destiny. Those were the big rules, the do not break these on pain of death rules.

But he had run from Heaven, he’d hidden out with the pagans for a few hundred years, and now no one suspected he was alive. No one was looking in on him to make sure he followed the rules. And given what he suspected about the Winchester’s destiny he was pretty sure he couldn’t shift it too much by making sure this kid wasn’t left to fend completely by himself, after all there was no way the kid of a hunter could understand how strange the world really was.

His attention snapped back to the young man below who had decided on a direction. He was walking determinedly towards a bus stop that would take him to the cities bus depot where he could catch another bus across country. Gabriel had to start making decisions and not just sit around watching this play out. Getting himself involved was going to lead to so many complications in his life. It was a terrible decision. And yet in an instant he was standing at the bus stop Sam was heading to looking for all the world like someone who was traveling by bus for a long distance. Luggage sitting by his feet, comfortable traveling clothes. 

It was mere moments before Sam made it to the stop and flopped down on the bench. “You ok kiddo?” Gabriel tried for casual hoping it didn’t come across as creepy since he was clearly older then the young man. 

“Fine, just been a rough day,” Sam sighed, “You traveling?”

“Heading back to school. Spent a bit of time with my folks over the summer. What about you?” Gabriel let the lie hang between them for a moment, hoping it sounded as genuine as he needed it to.

“I’m heading to College. It’ll be my first year.” Gabriel could see both the pride and the exhausted sadness that came with that. This kid was his responsibility to protect and he had no idea how he was supposed to help. 

He couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved when the bus arrived. They both climbed on and Gabriel had to remind himself that just because he had been watching Sam for his whole life didn’t mean that the kid automatically would trust him. He managed to keep himself from sitting directly next to him by sitting across the aisle. He had to remind himself that this was a long game, as always. The Winchester was a vessel, he had to be protected so that he could fulfill his destiny, even if Gabriel was not entirely sure that his brothers plans were best for any being.

[](http://imgur.com/tKyy3a1)


	2. Chapter 2

The journey to Stanford was incredibly tedious for Gabriel. He was not used to traveling the long way. Flying was much quicker. Being both an Archangel and a Pagan God he was not really expected to do anything the slow way. Though he had chosen to keep this close of an eye on Sam, and that mean he had to do things the human way, and that included eating more then just candy. 

About halfway to Stanford he realized he was going to need a place to stay, one that looked like where a college student would live. And it was going to be hard to get that figured out on the fly. Sam had already asked for his phone number, clearly feeling better about knowing another student on the campus. Gabriel had the presence of mind to at least tell him he was a grad student rather than an undergrad. It would lead to less questions really, since he didn’t want to spend all his time taking classes. Of course, it would still be bad if Sam went looking for him around campus. He really didn’t think this through. 

He began making a list of all the things he needed to take care of as soon as they arrived. Most of it he could take care of with a snap of his fingers, but since this had been such a last minute plan, he needed to make sure he didn’t miss anything. Sam was full of questions about the campus and everything that was involved in going to college, the kids curiosity was hard to deal with. He might have used his considerable powers a number of times to find answers to all of these questions. He honestly had no idea that there was so much to know about any part of human existence. 

With all of the questions the kid had been asking him Gabriel realized that he had enough information for himself to create a convincing cover, should anyone be interested enough to go looking for. And with how detail oriented the kid clearly was it was going to be important, just incase he decided to go digging through the details of his life.

“Hey, Gabe?” Sam asked as they disembarked the bus.

“Yeah?” Gabriel tried not to wince as the nickname Sam had bestowed upon him as he glanced at the young man,

“You have an apartment, yeah?”

“Of course, what of it?” Gabriel had a sinking feeling he knew though, school didn’t start for almost a week and he doubted if dorms were open until Monday, and it was Saturday. With the haste that they had left in he doubted the kid had enough for even a motel room. 

“I kinda need someplace to crash till Monday. I mean I can go to the administration and get let in early, I think, I read that that’s something they do in certain situations, I mean I’ve got a full ride and everything so money isn’t exactly an issue once school gets started.”

“Money is an issue still, you got any money on that scholarship for food?” Gabriels research had told him enough to know even the best scholarships didn’t pay for everything, and this kid really had nothing.

“Oh, I guess I probably will need a job too then.” The kid looked incredibly unhappy in that moment. And the part of Gabriel that said this was a terrible idea was screaming. He wasn’t really going to be in school here, he was an Archangel for crying out loud and Loki, god of mischief. He didn’t live a human existence, he was only going to cover his bases enough that Sam didn’t catch on to that right away.

“You can crash at my place till Monday, you can work on getting everything sorted with the school, you can probably work for the school in some capacity so you have a bit of extra money.” Gabriel explained, he hoped that would be enough. A part of him was in shock that this hunter trusted him so easily. Was willing to ask to stay with him. It was insane. Perhaps it was the bond between guardian angel and ward, or perhaps simple naivety on Sams part. Hopefully he was worth the trust.

“Right.” Sam squared his shoulders. “Lead the way.”

Gabriel set off in the direction of what would become his apartment over the time that Sam would be in school. It really was just an unused door, he’d use a bit of magic so people really didn’t pay attention to that fact, though humans really didn’t notice such things very often. As they clambered down the stairs he created a keychain that held the false key to get into the space he was currently bringing into reality. 

“Wow!” Sam exclaimed as they entered what Gabriel considered an incredibly modest space, “This is amazing, you stay here all the time?”

“Yep,” He glanced around the two bedroom apartment he had created. The space they were in had a window looking out at the street that matched the one on the outside of the building, a TV a sofa and a chair, a small dog bed and a dining table that would only seat two if they didn’t mind being close to each other. The kitchen was along the far wall and there were a grand total of four doors off the entire space, one was a closet, one a bathroom and the other two were the bedrooms. “Doesn’t take much to impress you does it?”

“I grew up in motels, so no, not really.”

“Right.” Gabriel took his things into his bedroom and pretended to get settled in while mostly working on creating his cover on campus. It only took him about an hour to get it all worked out. He was a bit surprised at how easy the whole weekend turned out to be. In such a short time he managed to become even more attached to the young man he had been charged with watching. At the same time it was a relief when the kid finally moved into the dorms, he was not sure how much longer he could managed to do everything the human way just so he didn’t get caught out by his roommate.

It was oddly comfortable moving into the area around the university, he was almost shocked by the number of creatures that resided in the area, some seemed to be students, others professors, all of the, seemed to be striving for a rather normal life. There were a couple underground networks providing resources for the population but it all seemed to make to so they could function in human society. A few of the networks were a bit unsavory, however, he couldn’t fault them for what they were allowing.

It only took a week before Sam was sitting in his living room again, he was a bit surprised at first, but the poor kid looked stressed already and from what he had already pried from him it wasn’t the workload that was getting to him. It was something he was reticent to talk about which probably meant that it was something to do with hunting. If Gabriel had to take a guess, and the way that Sam had clammed up he was going to have to, it was all the training that went into being a hunter that was clashing with everyday life of being a civilian. He knew what the kid needed was someone to confide in. Gabriel wasn’t sure how to become that person with out lying outright or giving away his true identity, or actually if it was something he should even be considering.

Over the next few months he often found Sam in his apartment when civilian life got to be too much, though the kid didn’t yet know that Gabriel was the kind of thing he might have hunted in his previous life. Of course, like Sam, Gabriel wasn’t used to keeping to a human life and it only took him two months to break down and do some hunting of his own. He went well out of town to find his target, there were plenty of people on campus who needed to learn a lesson but really that was far to close to him and with Sam hanging out all the time it was too risky. He knew the kid well enough to know the kid could figure it out if strange things started happening.

He remembered, as he was doing his hunting, that there was a reason that he had chosen to be a trickster after his time as an Archangel. He adored coming up with punishments that fit the crime, and honestly the more unique the better. He knew some of his work had ended up in tabloids because that was the only place that anyone would think it belonged even though it was in fact real. This time it was a simple case of a serial sexual harasser, and honestly it was almost too easy to get back at those. A bit of just humiliation in a way they didn’t get off on every time they thought of harassing someone and problem solved. 

He was still riding high from it when he got back to his current accommodations to find Sam lounging on his couch looking for all the universe like he belonged there. The kid was engrossed in whatever he was working on and didn’t register Gabriels return. A quick check of the time and Gabriel realized that it would have been a while since Sam probably ate last. He began banging around the kitchen making simple food that they would both be content to eat. 

Not being human meant his tastes ran a bit different, considering as an Archangel he consumed pure energy from the universe, as a Trickster he required copious amounts of sugar. Pretending to be human was tricky cause none of the food tasted like anything more then molecules if he didn’t let his vessel take over processing, though that was hit or miss since he had long ago created his own vessel so he didn’t have to keep shifting between possibilities that may or may not last all that long. In creating his own vessel he wasn’t sure he’d really managed to figure out this whole tasting thing.

The scent of food pried Sam away from his text books. The young man stood in the kitchen watching Gabriel move around making food and exuding happiness from his earlier exploits, not that Sam was aware of the reason behind his mood.

“What’s for dinner?”

“Pasta and vegetables,” Gabriel gestured to the different pans as he spoke. He wondered if Sam noticed that he never ate meat, or if that even bothered the young man. Though from what Sam tended to order for himself, vegan probably didn’t bother him all that much.

“Sounds good, I’ll be right back.” Sam slipped into the second bedroom and Gabriel could hear him moving around. He took that moment to peak at what Sam had been so intently working on before Gabriel had returned. He was shocked to see he clearly wasn’t reading for school but something on local history. Something he could pass off as curiosity to anyone not familiar with the way a hunter worked. Gabriel found himself curious about which creature living in the area had caught the young hunters attention, there were several just on campus that it could have been. 

He couldn’t help but let his mind wonder over the subject as he finished cooking and Sam returned to the main room.

“How are your classes going?” Gabriel asked trying not to sound awkward.

“Really well, though to be honest the whole semester feels way less intense then the last bit of High school. It’s been easier then I thought to get used to living away from my family.”

“That’s good, taking anything interesting?” 

“Not really, this semester is all entry level classes, standard stuff, mostly I already am familiar with it, makes it easier to get good grades in all my classes.” Sam smiled, “I was doing a bunch of reading about the area, trying to find some places that might be fun to go see. Not the touristy stuff, though I should probably go see some of that too, but things most people don’t really see.”

Gabriel could feel both the truth and the lie hidden in that statement, but it wasn’t like he could call Sam out on it. “Not much for ‘normal’?”

“Hard when you grow up on the road like me and my brother did.” Sam’s tone managed to be both nonchalant and sad. “Always finding something that no one else was interested in. Kinda a hobby.”

“Sounds like a good way for you to bond with your family.”

“Mostly my brother, Dad wasn’t much into taking us places.” Sam shrugged. “Maybe you can come with me sometime?”

“That’d be great.” Gabriel grinned, it’d been a long I’ve since anyone had wanted to go someplace with him and he hadn’t tricked them into coming with him. He couldn’t help but feel like his whole decision to stick to Sam was an amazing one.


	3. Chapter 3

Fuck all of this! It was a terrible horrible idea to stay this close to Sam. The kid had taken him to one of the abandoned hospitals in the area, called it urban exploring as if Gabriel was stupid and couldn’t both see and hear the damned EMF detector in the kid’s pocket. Not that he was exactly surprised, the kid was a Winchester, hunting was in their blood. A break would just make them hunger for it more.

And really at first it hadn’t been so bad. Most of the spirits in the hospital were not too awful, some of them were rather friendly, a few had the mistaken idea that since he was so powerful that he could take them to where they were supposed to go. Then he felt it. There was a seriously malicious spirit in this place, and it knew they were there. It really wasn’t happy about intruders, and it really didn’t care that he could destroy it with a snap of his fingers.

He managed to keep the ghost from attacking them until they managed to get to it’s lair, the damn kid had been taking them there the whole time and he hadn’t even noticed because he was too busy keeping the thing from trying to shred them. It wasn’t like he could just destroy it either since Sam would freaking notice if it just disappeared from the universe right in front of them, he’d have way too many questions.

They had both been tossed about quite a bit before Sam decided that they had enough information to get out of there. Gabriel was furious. The kid had put them in danger on fucking purpose. He had taken someone he thought was human into a situation where they were most defiantly going to be in danger, and could get hurt or killed and hadn’t thought twice about it.

“No.” Gabriel interrupted Sam, who was in the middle of talking about finding the grave of the evil ghost haunting the hospital.

“What?” Sam sounded genuinely shocked.

“You are not going out looking for trouble. You are supposed to be living a normal life, fitting in with all the other college kids, not ghost hunting because you are bored with your classes.” Gabriel ranted, “It’s not a game. Hunting the things that go bump in the night is not just an entertaining side project.”

Sam gaped at him for a long moment. “Wait, wait, you know about hunting?”

“I know about a lot of things. I know you were taking me there, without telling me that it could be risky, to hunt not just ghosts but a big nasty one. I know you kept sticking around to pry information out of it.” Gabriel sighed and tried not to let his emotions get the better of him. “It’s not ok to put someone in danger without their consent.”

“I’m sorry,” Sam looked put out by realizing what he had done, “I didn’t really think about it.”

“Clearly.” Gabriel wanted to tell the kid that it was alright the thing couldn’t really hurt him, but he really needed Sam to learn not to just take random humans into danger. He might have just told Sam about the world of hunting, “Just because I know about your line of work and am familiar with your family, it doesn’t make me a hunter.”

“Oh, and just where do you go when you disappear on the weekends?”

“Not hunting.” Well, not the hunting they were discussing exactly. He was tracking down monsters, just those of the human variety, and he really doubted that Sam would appreciate that since it did make him the kind of monster he hunted.

“Whatever.” Sam didn’t look like he believed him as he continued to drive them toward campus. “You don’t have to tell me, but your house is warded better than most hunters I’ve seen and it’s got wards I’ve never seen before.”

“And what if what I tell you is something you don’t like?”

“I’m not my father.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth. I would never accuse anyone of being like your father without cause. Neither you nor your brother are like that man. Heck, even my father waited till we were grown up to abandon us.” Gabriel paused so he didn’t let more than he mean to slip. “You are your own person, I just really need you to understand that you can't take random humans into danger without them understanding what they are getting into.”

“Fine. Would you like to gank this Son of a bitch ghost with me?”

Gabriels first instinct was nope, he wanted to go home, but then his programming to be Sam’s guardian Angel kicked in, “Yeah, sure.” He hated himself sometimes. This was a truly terrible idea.

In the end it was not horrible. Neither of them really got hurt, they got rid of the big nasty and got to go back to his little slice of the universe to take hot showers. It had still been a terrible idea. Cause he knew one of these days Sam was going to get them into something that he would have to stretch his wings to get them out of. He knew this because he had to save the kid from more things then he could count because they were always getting themselves in too deep. 

It was something he resigned himself to.


	4. Chapter 4

“I was wondering if it would be ok if I moved into your apartment?” Sam asked hesitantly about a month before the end of the school year. The kid had already been half living there since Christmas. He wasn’t getting along with his roommate who really wanted him to share an apartment with him next year. Sam had tried to explain to the guy that he wasn’t interested, but the guy seemed insistent on the fact that since Sam didn’t have anywhere to go except the dorms it was a perfect opportunity to get off campus.

“You’re here all the time anyway, I don’t see why not.” Gabriel shrugged. He liked having the kid around, though he wouldn’t say so. It seemed to ease something in him. He hadn’t needed to go wander off as often to go find his next victim as often as he had in the past. It wouldn’t be an imposition on him for Sam to hang around more, he was mostly living his human cover life, and Sam already knew he headed out on mystery adventures from time to time. “I like having you around. You sure you don’t want to do the normal college thing and have same aged roommates?”

“Clearly not my style.” Sam rolled his eyes at the thought. “I’d rather spend time with you then them anyway. I keep getting an odd impression of the guy who wants me to share an apartment with them.”

“Monster odd?” Gabriel leaned forward curious about the possibility.

“Not sure.” Sam looked at him oddly for a moment before speaking again, “Why don’t you come with me to this end of the school year party, you can meet him and the others and give your impressions and they can meet the guy I’d rather spend my time with then their sorry asses.”

There was really no excuse for him to tell Sam to shove his offer, except that he didn’t want to hang out with other humans barely out of childhood, or that if any of them were monsters that they would know right away that he was not human as well. “When is it?”

“Friday night, starts at 7ish.”

“-Ish?”

“You say that like you have never been to a party before, none of these things have a solid start time except show up at least 30 minutes after they tell you to.”

“Not really the party type,” Gabe hedged. It had been a few hundred years since he was anyone that got invited to parties. Being pagan had been full of parties, but in the last bit he had been avoiding them as much as he could, it never ended well for anyone involved, and he had more fun doling out punishments to those who deserved them.

“Really?” Sam looked a bit taken aback, “You don’t seem like someone who avoids those kinds of things, like you’ve tried a bit of everything.”

“A bit of everything huh?” Gabriel smirked despite himself, “I have partied before just not at college.”

“Ahh.” He found himself grateful that Sam excepted that explanation.

“Right, Friday night. What am I supposed to wear to this event?”

“Jeans and a t-shirt, its not formal, it’s for fun.” 

“Ok.” Gabriel watched Sam out of the corner of his eye as he bent to go back to his school work. The kid had managed to talk him into moving in with him and into a party in less than twenty minutes. He was clearly going soft. Of course the last time he had been to a party there were several blood sacrifices and a great deal of alcohol that would have killed a human in a few sips. Not that Sam needed to be privy to that information. This next year was going to be truly interesting.


	5. Chapter 5

Gabriel found himself nervous for the party. He had changed his clothes a couple hundred times, different styles, colors, fits. He had settled on a black shirt, dark jeans and a green jacket. While it was nearly summer, the nights had not warmed significantly enough to justify going in just a t-shirt, not that his vessel required him to be warm all the time. He couldn’t help pacing as he waited for Sam, who he could sense was also a touch nervous. It was just not going on 7 and they didn’t have to be there for at least another half hour.

Just as he was wondering where the kid might have gone off to a knock came from the front door. Pulling it open to scold Sam for knocking when he was getting ready to move in, he was shocked into silence seeing the young man dressed in the nicest jeans he had ever seen the kid in and a shirt that was about a size to small showing off the definition in his chest and arms. He was not used to seeing the young man as anything but a child. Now here he stood looking like a beautiful human specimen, one he would have gladly taken to bed had it been any other human.

“Hi,” Sam nervously smiled.

“Hi, you look good.” Gabriel tried to get himself back under control. He didn’t need to be thinking about anything but going to this party and investigating what this former roommate was up to.

“So do you.”

“Uhhh, thanks. How are we getting to this party?” Gabriel shut and locked the door behind them. The space might not be real but he had gotten into the habit after Sam had scolded him for not locking up the pace after a string of break ins around campus. 

“I figured we’d walk, I’d rather not leave a car by a house full of drunk people.” Sam chuckled as the pair made their way down the sidewalk, a few people walked passed paying them no mind to the fact that they had just walked out of a door that recently had only led to an unused cellar. Though a part of Gabriel always wondered if they noticed that it was odd for people to come out of a basement entrance to an abandoned building. Of course he wasn’t even sure that Sam realized the building they occupied was empty besides them, he’d never mentioned it before. 

“Fair enough.” Gabriel had found he enjoyed the slower pace of walking, it allowed him to enjoy his father's creation, something he had not taken time to do in many ages. He had forgotten how beautiful everything was, it had never been the focus of any of his other jobs. Playing Loki and being god's judgment were not usually dealing with the best sides of creation.

“What are you up to this summer?” Sam inquired breaking into Gabriels contemplation of the universe around them.

“Not much, I have some school work, I’ve got a class for the first session of summer then I’m free for a bit.” Gabriel sighed dramatically, classes had been difficult for him simply because he was required to do things for them, not because he had to learn much of the information. He hated being bound to things and classes were no different, Sam was honestly not different. He was stuck here because of Sam, and he didn’t hate Sam for it, the kid was innocent in this regard, however he hated the fact that he was his guardian angel. It was ridiculous that an Archangel be a guardian of some being in the first place, such a lowly position, even if Sam was a special case. But that was an argument he had had with himself too many times over the years since Sam had been born. “Were you wanting to do something?” 

“Well, I was wondering if you would come with me to investigate a series of incidents a couple hours north of here. It’s not much, but I think something has been causing some strange problems.” Sam explained, at least the kid had learned to ask before dragging him into situations like last time.

“I want to see what you have on it before I agree. I’m not walking into anything unprepared, and honestly I’m not a hunter, why do you think I’m in grad school?” Resentment of the all powerful was probably the best description of what he felt about being Sams guardian. Not that he could stop. Not that he wanted to anymore. But why did he have to decide he needed to stick this close and blend in?

“Cause you are far more interested in the academia of hunting then the actual killing of things?” Sam’s voice light as he teased, clearly knowing he had hit the nail on the head.

“I’m definitely not one for the hands on violence of the career option. Also, I like my creature comforts.” Gabriel gestured grandly, reasoning that he was only referring to the hands on part of hunting in the human sense of it. He was very hands on when it came to the version of him that played Loki, and he was very good at it, and enjoyed it. “You have seen my apartment, and you want to live there too.”

“Only partly ‘cause it's comfortable. Partly cause you are seriously paranoid and that kind of protection makes me feel better even if we are pretending to be civilians.”

“I’m paranoid?” Gabriel raised an eyebrow at the kid. “I’m not the one who created permanent salt lines for the doors and windows!”

“I figured it’d be cheaper if I didn’t have to re-do them all the time. Not that salt is expensive but you know, people think you’re odd if you are always pouring salt on things.” Sam said defensively.

Their conversation was cut off as they were absorbed into the crowd that was the party. Sam was greeted warmly by a number of party goers, who directed them into the Frat houses kitchen for drinks. Gabriel could sense several creatures including a number of demons in the crowd, but he wasn’t too concerned. It wasn’t some kind of surprise for any number of beings to be attracted to an event like this, he also was aware that a number of them were in fact attending the university as well, they certainly weren’t the only ones pretending to be normal.

Just cause a hunter would think them monsters didn’t mean he felt they were a danger. Really John had been, and was, more of a threat to Sam then any of the creatures currently hanging out at the party attempting to get as shit faced as the rest of the students. The non humans here were controlling their instincts to blend in and hopefully get what they wanted out of life.

Making it into the kitchen was an adventure, people were moving in a constant stream in and out of the space carrying red plastic cups most likely filled with booze. Gabriel was reminded of the parties he used to attend in Rome, those guys knew how to party as well as these kids did. Though the Romans had servants and slaves to bring them drinks and they didn’t need to go get their own. Sam looked a bit uncomfortable when several young woman came up and introduced themselves by flirting with him.

“Ladies, let the kid get a drink before you start in on him, he’s wound so tight right now you’re never going to get anywhere.” Gabriel said easily, a smirk finding its way to his face. He knew Sam wasn’t one for so much emotion being thrown at him, but these young women didn’t need to know that.

“Thanks,” Sam whispered as they finally made it to the alcohol.

“Nothing to worry about,” taking the solo cup he was handed by a jovial looking young man who was serving punch and probably getting paid pretty well for it, “Drinks before all”

The pair made their way outside with their mostly alcohol mixed drinks. The back yard of the house was as packed as the front. “Sam!” A young man with tussled brown hair, and a preppy aesthetic that would make him a perfect model for any boating magazine shouted from across the yard.

“You are way too easy to see,” Gabriel commented at Sam’s clear bafflement at someone being able to pick them out of a crowd.

“I’m glad you came,” Sam exchanged high fives with the clearly drunk young man who had greeted them, “And I’m glad you brought a friend, the more the merrier.”

“Gabriel, this is Brady. He was the one who wanted me to room with him next year.” Sam introduced them, “Brady, this is they guy I was telling you about, the one who I’ll be living with next year.”

“Not quite what I was imagining,” Brady looked him up and down, “But totally your type.”

“Am I now?” Gabriel asked, tension seeping into him. He could see the demon that was sizing him up. Gabriel knew that what the creature could see was probably a strange mix of Pagan and Angel, he had not been as careful about keeping up his pagan mask since they had been in Stanford and really it did take quite a bit of maintenance, his angelic grace tended to burn it away.

“Angel, you have been dabbling in things that you don’t understand,” The demon snapped, figuring out far too quickly which was the mask for Gabriel’s liking.

“And you aren’t?” Pulling himself to his vessels full hight, Gabriel knew he was not as intimidating as he hoped.

“I know my place in all of this.” Brady laughed, clearly having no idea the long game that was in play in all of this.

“Unfortunately so do I.” Gabriel spun to face Sam who was looking completely out of his depth in the strange conversation that had just taken place, “I need another drink.”

“Yeah, of course.” Sam led the way back to the house leaving Brady with a quick, “See ya later.”

“What the hell was that?” The kid demanded once the where out of earshot of any human.

“Not here, preferably never.” Gabriel tried to walk away, hoping that Sam wouldn’t push, he was meddling far more then he had ever intended. He was far too attached to Sam for his own good, but damn it all, he was never meant to be a guardian angel, he was the messenger of the lord.

“No, no, no. You don’t get to get out of this. I know all that posturing was about me.” Sam’s voice was both demanding and slightly panicked

“Then bring it up when we are back at my apartment and not here.” Gabriel pulled away and got a refill on a cup he had easily drained. He was going to have to find some time to hide his identity better, if a low level demon could figure out he was an angel, he’d been neglecting his disguise far too long.

He could feel Sam’s eyes on him as they mingled with the crowd, though he could feel neither of them being exactly present with all the people they interacted with. Not that the tipsy and drunk beings surrounding them cared as they were far more interested in sex, alcohol, and music. By his fourth refill, he could feel Sam getting truely uncomfortable with the situation. Downing the alcohol he gave up on enjoying himself and dragged Sam through the crowd and back to the street.

Unlike their short walk to the house the walk back was silent, neither in the mood to make small talk. Gabriel couldn’t even bring himself to look at the wonders around him. He was hoping in a way that this conversation would happen after he had saved Sam from some monster or whatever, not after a petty pissing match with a demon who thought he was butting in where he didn’t belong.

On top of that he was going to have to explain why he unfortunately knew what his place was. Though perhaps Sam would forget that part, there were a lot of other things to focus on in that conversation. He was so boned. He didn’t even bother pulling out his key to get into the apartment when they got there, just opening the door and letting them both into the magically created apartment.

“No one who I don’t want to is getting in here.” Gabriel flopped unceremoniously onto the sofa, Sam slammed the door behind him, deciding that the dirt being unlocked was the least of their worries.

“What the heck was that conversation back there?” Sam demanded of the angel in front of him, though Gabriel doubted he understood what that even meant.

“I’m surprised your hunter training didn’t make you so paranoid that you wouldn’t check your roommate for being a creature.” Gabriel responded, thinking of both himself and the demon he had previously been staying with.

“I was attempting to be a normal civilian, you know with normal manners.” Sam looked confused by the strange turn in the conversation, but the surprise seemed to cause his anger to instantly dissipate as he collapsed into a charge across from Gabriel.

“You can try, but they are never going to let that happen,” Sighing Gabriel looked up at the ceiling, knowing what was coming next, Sam was far less of a mystery then the man wanted to believe.

“Who? Who has the power to make me do anything I don’t want to?” 

“Really, Sam? You should know better then that. Even minor witches have the power to make you do something you don’t want to. You are human. You have no power in this world.” Gabriel knew it was cruel, but he was irritated, nothing was going the way he wanted it to. But when he decided to discard all the rules he really should have known things would be unpredictable at best.

“Gabriel.”

“What?”

“Who is Brady in all of this?”

“A pawn really.”

“And what is all of this?”

“Oooh, we are going for straight forward questions now huh?”

“Gabriel.”

“Fine.” Gabriel stood and walked toward Sam, “This is the apocalypse. The big Christian one where Michael and Lucifer duke it out for control of everything, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. The one the big guy put in place at the beginning of time.”

“The apocalypse. Right, which makes you?”

“Gabriel.”

“Don’t fuck with me.”

“I’m not!” Gabriel was entirely offended, humans, “Really, I’m not fucking with you, I have nothing to hide there. I have been honest with you about who I am from the beginning. In this mess though I am a bystander, well I thought that was what was supposed to happen.”

“I know your name you dumbass.” Sam rolled his eyes, clearly having missed that Gabriel had given him all the peace’s.

“Oh.” Gabriel looked at him for a long moment trying to figure out how to explain, “Brady gave you a good start on that if you remember.”

“No, he didn’t.” Sam answered almost automatically.

“Think about what he said to me.” Gabriel watched as Sam thought back to the conversation. “What did he call me?”

“Angel.” Sam looked blankly at the man in front of him for a long uncomprehending moment, “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Gabriel walked over to the kitchen puttering around in the cabinets and refrigerator for something to eat, finding nothing that looked appealing.

“What did he mean?”

“Which part.” Gabriel appraised Sam, wondering how badly he would flip out he he just snapped something sweet up.

“That you aren’t what he expected?”

“Done a lot of things to stay hidden from Heaven over the millennia. Not all of them great for the Grace.” The answer was as nonchalant as he could make it. He shrugged and snapped, a pile of pancakes with strawberry syrup appeared in front of him causing Sam to nearly jump out of his skin. “There’s a lot about this world that you hunters haven’t even scratched the surface of.”

“I’m starting to see that.”

“Want some?” Gabriel gestured at the plate of food in front of him.

“Why the fuck not,” Sam said letting his obvious hunger over take him, clearly still trusting him on instinct.

Gabriel snapped again a plate with Sam’s favorite salad from one of the local restaurants down the street. “You still want to live here next year?”

“Are you actually a student here?” Sam asked a question of his own.

“Kinda,” Gabriel replied shifting his feet and picking at his food, “I enrolled myself in some classes and such in the program, but its not like I ever completed an Undergraduate degree or anything. It’s not really the information that’s difficult, I know most of that already, but its actually getting the work done. Making myself do it the human way is tough.”

Sam looked surprised and started laughing, “Good enough. Uh, yes I would still like to live here, for whatever reason I feel safe with you, maybe its the whole angel thing, maybe it’s the wards.”

“There could be another reason.” Gabriel couldn’t help the awkwardness that filled him once again, after this conversation he might actually need to sleep, so many revelations and reasons for Sam to want to reject him and freak out.

“Oh?”

“There was a very distinct pull when you were born, one that I have never been able to resist.” Gabriel took a deep breath, “I am your guardian angel.”

“That’s real?” Sam tilted his head, Gabriel could feel his desire to go hit the books and start researching all of this.

“No, I decided to spontaneously make it up.” Gabriel grumbled in frustration, “Of course it’s real, Sammy. I’ve been hiding from everyone in heaven and hell for age’s, I certainly wouldn’t get involved with your family if there wasn’t something going on.”

“What’s wrong with my family?” 

“Sam, you have hunters on both sides of your family. Well, Hunters on one side and Men of Letters on the other, but still people who are out to get rid of all the monsters in the world. Your family isn’t exactly safe, plus with Azazel on your tail, you are really not good for my ability to hide.”

“If I’m so detrimental to your need to run why are you here? Taking PhD classes of all things.” 

“The fucking bond being your guardian angel invoked.” Gabriel accidentally smashed the glass he had just picked up, he quickly replaced it with a new one, taking an unnecessary sip. “I've mostly come to accept it. You are quite the human, and very good at getting into trouble.”

“Like this evening.”

“Oh no, this evening was nothing. That was a conversation that was a bit awkward, and if I wasn’t living in your pocket I wouldn’t have even bothered swinging by to check on you. My job as your guardian angel is to keep you safe from deadly harm, or you know anything that can possibly lead to your death.”

“Wait,” Sam squinted, thinking back to the moment he met Gabriel for the first time, “I wasn’t in physical danger when you showed up before school started.”

“No, I am currently breaking all the rules, not that there is anyone who realizes that I am still alive to be breaking rules in the first place, but we were never supposed to meet in person. I certainly am not supposed to stick around and make sure you have a place to live away from that manipulative demon who is begging you to be his roommate, and now certainly thinks we are banging.”

“What happens if you do get caught?”

“A slap on the wrist? Michael has bigger things on his plate.”

“The apocalypse.”

“Bingo.” Gabriel looked over Sam carefully taking him in on all planes, “Alright, I know you have about a billion and one questions, but you need to let this all sink in.”

“But”

“Don’t even start. You need rest. We have all summer for you to pry answers out of me.”

“Fine.” Sam looked a bit put out but Gabriel snapped up a pair of beers and the tv flipped on to some reality TV show that the Angel favored, a peace offering to end the conversation that had taken up much of their evening instead of the party they had both been planning on.


	6. Chapter 6

It ended up taking Sam two weeks of clearly pondering everything, making Gabriel increasingly nervous before they spoke about it again. Gabriel was glaring at his computer screen attempting to make it do what it was he needed it to do for some assignment that was due when he went back to classes in a few months. It was an absolutely gorgeous summer morning and Sam sauntered into their now shared apartment with coffee and breakfast burritos, a seriously appreciated gesture even if Gabriel could just snap whatever they wanted up.

“I was wondering if you would want to come with me to take care of whatever is causing mayhem and death about twenty miles north of here.” Sam asked, clearly hoping the answer was yes.

“Just cause I have way more power then you doesn’t mean I am at your beck and call to deal with monsters.” Gabriel looked over the other man, trying to figure out his motivations.

“Nah, I really just need back up. Dean would kill me if he ever found out I was hunting on my own. I mean the extra firepower is appreciated for sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a rogue werewolf, not like the guy down the block that chows down on things that are already dead. I really don’t want to know where he managed to get a human arm.”

“I wouldn’t expect you’d want to know that. Fine, fine. Let's go, then maybe when we get back you can make my computer do what I need it to do.” Gabriel unfortunately knew exactly where the guy had gotten the arm and the people responsible for that were reprehensible, however they provided a much needed service for the creatures that wanted to fit into society. He only went after them if they crossed the line from providing a service into true horror. 

“I find it amazing that you really want to do that dumb assignment the human way.”

“I don’t! Want is such a strong word for such a crap-tactic assignment. I mean, seriously, no one is ever going to need to know how to do that, it's not how anything actually works in the universe, it barely explains a third of what is actually going on in this whole scenario that they have proposed!” Gabriel ranted, irritated that he, an Archangel, was repeating an often heard complaint of students everywhere. “However, I made a commitment to not only stay hidden, and watch over you, but also I promised myself I would do this the human way.”

“I’ll see what I can do to help, when we get back.” Sam promised as they made their way to the parking garage where Gabriel kept a vehicle for their sporadic use.

“Perfect.” Gabriel couldn’t help but enjoy the feel the warmth of the nearly summer sun beating down on them.

When they reached the car Sam climbed into the driver's seat, “Now, I have questions and I am pretty sure you can answer them.”

“Oh?” Gabriel knew this was coming since their last conversation, he’d known it really since he’d dropped into Sam’s life all those months ago. He braced himself for a rather fierce round of questioning.

“I need you to explain the whole apocalypse thing, what I have to do with it, and who the heck Azazel is.” Sam left it so open ended, Gabriel could almost have laughed, he was truly fishing for information.

He took a deep breath and began from the beginning. He talked about Lucifer and Michael at their epic battle that would end days. He explained that there were many working on both sides to set things up so that it would be perfect when the time came. He talked about the fact that many assumed it was his father that had set it all up, had been the mastermind of the whole thing but really it wasn’t. Why would god the great creator decided to wreak his own toys? No it had been some other force at work, one he wasn’t quite sure of, one he had only assumptions about. A force that the archangels and God had fought at the beginning of time and locked away. A force that should have no power over anything anymore but seemed to be finding ways between the bars to influence events.

By the time he finished explaining the situation as he understood it, he found he had put together pieces as he spoke that even he had not realized were things that fit together. 

“Okay, that explains what is going on with the apocalypse. But I think we are still missing why am I involved and who Azazel is.” Sam pulled them into the parking lot of a motel on the outskirts of the city the monsters were causing chaos in.

“Sam!” Gabriel yelled in exasperation.

“What?” Sam looked incredibly surprised by the Archangels outburst.

“I just put together the epic puzzle that is the apocalypse and you are treating it like I’m keeping things from you!”

“No, I mean, It’s great to know what’s causing the problem, but there are some more immediate things that are causing issues for me specifically. I mean the whole Darkness thing is way outside anything that I have any say in. You seriously think that Me or my brother could take on the Darkness and God? We really aren’t that important in the scheme of things.”

“Ahh, you underestimate your importance in all of this.” Gabriel couldn’t help but look a bit smug.

“An importance you have yet to explain.”

“You do realize that they think we are odd for sitting here in the car arguing right?” Gabriel pointed to the window of the motel that clearly was the one for the main office where a shadowy face was looking out at them.

“Fine.” Sam climbed out of the car, poking his head back in he pointed at Gabriel, “You are not getting out of explaining the rest of this.”

“Yeah, yeah. Get us one of these flea bitten rooms.”


	7. Chapter 7

Sam tapped away on his laptop leaving Gabriel flipping through channels board out of his mind. They had settled into the room and Sam had refocused immediately on the case that was at hand. He seemed to forget that Gabriel could tell him about what was in the area and causing the problems if he just asked. Gabriel sighed dramatically to himself. It was just like humans to forget important things that could help them the most.

Or maybe he hadn’t. Gabriel examined the young man. He could have been respecting his wishes and doing things the human way instead of relying on supernatural powers to solve the problem. Huh.

In a way Gabriel was surprised. He thought that anyone who did this job would be more than willing to use any resource at their disposal without concern for the consequences. Apparently Sam was not the only one underestimating the Winchesters. He sighed loudly again as he changed the channel again.

“You could help with research.” Sam commented

“I don’t need to research.”

“No? I thought you wanted to do this the human way.” Yep, Sam was trying to respect his wishes. Damn, the kid was too good to him.

“There are some things that I simply cannot do the human way. All I have to do is take a quick walk around town and I could tell you exactly what your problem is.”

“You might be better off if you take the car. Walking takes a long time.” Sam looked at him over the screen of his laptop.

“You just want me out of your hair.” Gabriel nearly laughed.

“Actually yes. You being bored is not helping me focus.”

“If I can tell you what is causing the issue, why research?”

“To make sure that it is not just a human doing the damage. If they are human it’s not really my place to take care of them. That is for the police and the FBI if they are so needed.” Sam shrugged, he clearly still saw himself purely as a hunter, the police of the supernatural.

“Or me.”Gabriel reminded him of his role as trickster, a gig he had no intention of completely giving up no matter how close he ended up to the Winchester’s and his own families problems, mostly because he enjoyed it. Truth be told it had been incredibly convenient for hiding too.

“I suppose.” He didn’t really want to go out and spend more time in the car right now and finishing his story time to Sam would be much more interesting, he still had so many things he needed to work out in his mind about how all of this fit together. Talking it through would let him get his thoughts in order so he could start to work out how to stop it all.

“How about this: put away your computer and I will tell you the rest of what you wanted to know about the apocalypse and tomorrow we can take a drive around the city and I can see what I can find out.”

“Fine.” Sam closed his computer and turned so he was facing Gabriel. 

The Archangel sat up crossing his legs on the bed. He paused before he began to speak. “You and Dean are an integral part of this apocalypse. You serve several purposes.”

“Okay.”

“You, first and foremost, are the breakers of the first and last seals that allow Lucifer out of his cage.” Gabriel explained.

“God sure likes his eternal prisons doesn’t he.” Sam looked disgusted putting that all together. Gabriel could understand where the human was coming from, having spent enough time around humanity, but really that’s not how even angels operated.

“God is not human, he is not what humans define as good or evil, he is a creator.” Gabriel tried to explain, though the truth was there was probably no way to describe something so other to a human. “God is not the most important part of this though. You and your brother are Lucifer and Michael's true vessels, respectively.”

Sam recoiled at the implication before coming back with another question. “What are true vessels?”

“Angels, which no matter what he has done, Lucifer still is, require vessels, similar to demons, to interact with humans. We can’t just use our natural forms, they aren’t things that humans can comprehend or interact with without dying. Angels, different from Demons require permission to use a human for a vessel. The other important thing is that there are certain people better suited than others to be vessels. An angels true vessel is one that is perfectly suited for that angel and won’t be destroyed by the possession.”

“Is that the case with yours then?”

“No, mine is a special creation. This was never human.” Gabriel gestured to himself. “I made it from scratch. Needed something that I wouldn’t have to change and would still blend in to humanity with. I was running away, a trail of used up vessels would be like a bread crumb trail leading them right to me.”

“So the others could create their own vessels.”

“They could. But really it takes time, effort and know how.”

“You had to figure it out then.”

“A bit of trial and error.”

“So, Lucifer and Michael want to used me and Dean as vessels so that they can what fight over who gets control of the universe?” Sam looked questioningly at the Archangel. “Couldn’t they manage that without getting us involved?”

“Not for the universe, just earth. They want control over humanity.”

“What’s so special about us?”

“So many things. First, you were fathers last creations and he asked us to watch over you. Most angels have no idea what is so special about you.” Gabriel laughed, “most will never understand that it’s so simple, you naturally have free will and it was something that father was so proud of. Your ability to choose, to not always follow orders. He wanted to let you go and see what you would do, would create. Probably he’s still hanging about somewhere watching to be entirely honest.”

“Why doesn’t he stop all of this then?”

“He wants to see what humanity will do with the problem, more than likely.”

“An experiment.”

“Something like that.” Gabriel couldn’t help but feel a bit sad about the state of what many would consider his family. 

Sam sat quietly next to the angel for a long time processing everything. It was a lot to take in. He had a feeling that if Gabriel wasn’t around things would be very different especially when it came to the apocalypse. “It seems like there isn’t much we can do about that right now though. Going after Azazel won’t solve anything.”

“No, not really, he’s a minor player really.” Gabriel agreed

“God isn’t likely to come out of hiding for something that plays into his experiment.”

“No.”

“So, we really have to face the major players rather then playing with the pawns. None of us are ready for that.”

“I don’t want to fight my brothers. No matter what they have done they are still family.”

“Yeah, I get that.” Sam sighed there was so much that they were going to have to figure out. And he had a feeling that there were going to be beings trying to force the issue, and if that didn’t work they would find another way to make it happen. 

“You aren’t going to solve the universe tonight kiddo.” Gabriel finally interrupted the spinning thoughts he could almost feel the kid working his way through. Not that he couldn’t relate when trying to work this all out, but obsessing over it never seemed to solve it.

“I know, I know. I’m just trying to process everything.”

“Sleep on it. We will solve the present case and then start working our way through the other stuff once we get home.”


	8. Chapter 8

Gabriel stepped out of the motel, letting the cool air of the morning wash over him, he let his senses stretch out through the city. He could have done this last night, but he didn’t want to think about the case on top of everything else they had talked about. 

A werewolf was just waking up across town, but they weren’t the creature causing this mayhem, they were actually coping quite well with their circumstances. He was almost surprised that he was only sensing the one, they usually lived in packs.

The city also seemed to have a coven of witches, also not the creatures ripping people apart. Though it was good to know they were here, keeping an eye on witches was always a good idea, never knew when they would cross the line.

A bit more searching and he found a handful of demons, several were just causing mischief, one was busily making deals and two were just avoiding spending time in hell. He wasn’t too worried about any of them. Demons could be nasty, and seriously problematic, but easy enough to take care of. They were also not causing the worst of the problems in the city, Demons did tend to be a rather endemic part of any large city, so many people in one place attracted them in droves, an handful was nothing to be concerned with.

There was a group of vampires living on the edge of town, and for a moment he was almost convinced they were the ones causing the issue, but then he caught a different creature on his radar. 

No, not a different type, one he had missed, careless of him really. Another Werewolf, living in a different part of town. It was living under wards which had thrown off his detection of him. Smart, but why would a werewolf know to hide from the supernatural so that it could operate as it wanted to. Why was it hiding and killing at the same time?

“Gabriel?” Sam’s voice was still ragged from sleep as the young man approached from their room.

“Yeah?”

“Whatcha doing out here?”

“Checking out the towns supernatural population, was just trying to figure out where our culprit is hanging out.”

“Oh.” Sam gave him a hard look. “Find anything?”

“I think so, but we are going to have to be careful, I think the creature we are after knows a thing or two about what is out there and is taking precautions.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, he has a bunch of warding up, mostly against demons but also for just about everything else and some general anti-prying eye warding. It’ll be interesting trying to figure out how they know all that stuff.”

“It could be a hunter turned werewolf. I mean they would know all that stuff, might just want to keep hunting.”

“Any evidence that they have only been looking for other supernatural creatures?”

“Hard to tell from dead bodies I haven’t seen.” Sam snapped. Gabriel knew that without direct proof there was no way to know for sure, but he hadn’t been expecting Sam to take his frustrations out on him.

“Sam,” Gabriel sighed, “we can get this figured out, but perhaps some breakfast first.”

“Fine, there’s a diner down the street.” Sam said, still a bit snappishly as he went back into the room to find something better than his sleeping clothes to head out in.

Gabriel sighed. That conversation hadn’t gone well. Not that he was surprised. Sam was not quite himself since their big talk a few weeks ago and now he had added to the knowledge, and Gabriel wasn’t quite sure what to do about it. He was supposed to protect this young man not burden him with all the chaos of the apocalypse. Protecting him from that wasn’t possible though. Damn this assignment. Damn his instincts.

“Let’s go.” Sam had walked back out pulling a shirt on as he came back out in his snug jeans, Gabriel couldn’t help but trace the well defined hunters body as he covered it up.

Gabriel followed the young human trying to remember why it was that he thought becoming friends with the creature he was supposed to be watching over was a good idea. and to grow so attached to him, dangerous. He was so screwed.


	9. Chapter 9

Sam shifted restlessly next to him as they staked out the place where Gabriel had sensed nothing. They had been sitting in the car for almost three hours in near silence waiting for something to happen. Gabriel could have staked it out without having to sit around like a stalker, but it seemed to make Sam feel like they were doing something rather than wasting time. 

There wasn’t any way for them to see the victims bodies, most of them were already buried or cremated and the one that wasn’t was now in another state. The police had been willing to give them copies of the reports once Gabriel persuaded them, but someone else’s words were never the same as seeing it in person.

“If you don’t stop singing that infernal song I’m snapping you back to the motel room” Gabriel snapped.

“I didn’t sing anything.”

“So loud, how do you focus with so much noise in your head?”

“Like there aren’t a thousand things going on in your angelic head,” Sam shot back, “Also stay out of my head.”

“You are projecting, and thinking about me at the same time, I’m really not in your head, you are unintentionally sharing.”

 

“Whatever.” Sam went back to reading the files, that were barely holding his attention. “This is no use. We need a new victim to know if it’s a hunter or a creature.”

“Unfortunately.”

Sam sighed and tossed the files unceremoniously into the back seat of the car. This investigation was probably not what the hunter had hoped for. It was far more complicated and with not a single body to see it was difficult to know what they were looking for. Gabriel was no more used to this slow steady pace of acquiring information, his usual victims were easy to find, and often too arrogant even if they knew the supernatural to protect themselves against every threat. And he could attack on multiple fronts. 

This being was well warded. And while Gabriel could just appear in its living room he didn’t know what he was walking into, and it wasn’t exactly his place to help the hunter to that extent. He wasn’t willing to either with out more information on what this creature was up to. Like was he killing off people or creatures who deserved death? Or was it taking innocents?

“Let’s go do something else.” Gabriel turned on the car.

“We are supposed to be staking the house out.”

“I don’t have to physically watch the place.” Gabriel reminded the hunter as they pulled away from the curb. “Any way this guy might know we are watching him and be less likely to do anything while we are just sitting here staring at his house.”

“Fine.”

“Don’t get grumpy on me. You are just as bored as I am sitting here watching a house that could very well be empty.”

“You told me it wasn’t empty.”

“It isn’t. I’m just not sure who’s home.”

“You are irritating.”

“You love me anyway.” Gabriel tossed the line out casually before realizing that it could seriously be taken to mean romantic love and not something platonic, he was in no way ready to think anything between them could be romantic, it was just far to against the rules for that to be comfortable.

“Asshole.” Sam huffed and looked out the window, seemingly taking the line at face value.

It took them mere moments to arrive back in the main part of the city, and only a few more to find some place to eat. Sam held the door for Gabriel as they entered the inviting diner. 

“You know this is the first time I’ve ever done this with a partner.” Gabriel admitted as they sat down in a booth.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I've never gone to find a monster of any kind with someone. I’ve always done my searching by myself. I mean sometimes I might spend time with different people while I was working, but they weren’t involved in any part of it. Most didn’t even know what I did when I wasn’t spending time with them.”

“Funny since it’s always been something I've done with at least one person at my side. Though this is the first time I’ve done it with that other person not being family.”

“Why did you ask me along?”

“I told you, hunting is dangerous by yourself.”

“Yeah, but why me and not one of your other friends.”

“I don't have to introduce you to this world. You know more about it then I do. I don’t have to teach you to protect yourself.”

“You asked me along cause it was practical?”

“Kinda. I mean I also enjoy your company.” Gabriel smiled at the hunter seated across from him. 

“Good to know.”

“Don’t let it get to your head.” Sam rolled his eyes and could’ve seem to keep a smile off his face.

Gabriel smiled at the young man, though his expression quickly died as he felt the creature leave it’s hideout. It had basic warding on it, but nothing that kept an Archangel from seeing exactly what it was and where it was headed.

“What is it?” Sam asked when he noticed the expression on Gabriels face, clearly understanding something was wrong.

“It’s a werewolf, though he’s messed with a lot of magic in his time. Possibly was a hunter at some point, or knew them well, maybe men of letters.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, very good at warding, but not familiar with anything like me from what I can tell.” Gabriel shrugged, he wasn’t sure he wanted this creature to have any idea of his existence, there were very few beings that knew of him these days as it was.

“You aren’t exactly a familiar being these days. Angels in general aren’t even common knowledge. Hunters haven’t run into them as far as I’ve read.”

“If they did interact if probably didn’t end well for the hunter.” Gabriel admitted.

“So, what do we do about this warding Werewolf who is killing.”

“We wait still.”

“Oh?”

“Sam, there’s a lot we still don’t know.” Gabriel knew that wouldn’t exactly be what the young hunter would want to hear, but they had very little information on the victims. And while Sam might be ok with killing the creature, Gabriel needed to know why and who it was killing and the humans couldn’t tell him that. So while he might have to find out about it the human way he wanted to make sure he had the full explanation.

“I get that.” Sam felt a bit frustrated by Gabriels dismissal of what needed to happen next. “What I mean is, well, how do we figure out who he is and what he is up to.”

“Unfortunately, we wait. We need to keep an eye on him and that could really take a couple of days, though now that we know about what he is it's clear that his killing cycle probably lines up with the lunar cycle, meaning today or tomorrow will be one of his last kills for the month” with that explanation Sam let the conversation wonder back to the mundane, leaving Gabriel to quietly monitor their werewolf.


	10. Chapter 10

“He’s found his next victim.” Gabriel announced from his seat in front of the small television in their hotel room.

“Where? Can you tell who?” Sam’s attention snapped from his computer to Gabriel.

“Pinpointing where is easy, happened across someone at the supermarket we saw on the way back here from lunch. Who is a bit harder, there are too many beings to be able to say specifically who, I'd need to get closer.” Gabriel had a feeling that it was less a problem of numbers and more to do with the creatures expertise at wards. He hadn’t even met the creature and he was already irritated by it, to the point where no matter what it was up to he was rather tempted to rain hell down on it.

“So, let's get closer.”

“That’s dangerous, Sam.”He knew Sam wasn’t going to go for it, but he had to try, it was part of his job, keeping Sam safe.That didn’t mean he was always king to be successful at it. 

“Gabriel,” Sam stood in front of the archangel, “hunting is dangerous. Now let's go see if we can get this figured out.”

“Fine, fine.” Gabriel pulled himself up, “Lets go then.” 

The pair quickly found the supermarket that the werewolf the were tracking was at with his newest victim. The young man being followed seemed nothing out of the ordinary to Gabriel, no essence of magic or supernatural, didn’t carry himself like a hunter, or worse any of the men of letters. He seemed as human as he could be. 

“What do you want for lunch?” Sam asked as they made their way through the aisles.

“Humm?” Gabriel barely glanced at his partner.

“Lunch, love. That’s why we are here what do you want?”

“Oh! Right.” Gabriel was surprised by the seemingly random question about food they didn’t need. It took him a moment to catch up to what Sam was actually thinking, “Uh... Sandwiches!”

“You want to go run and grab chips and soda and I’ll meet you at the cash register with sandwiches?”

“Sure.” Sam walked swiftly away from Gabriel, who was trying to act like he wasn’t completely distracted. He reached out with through his grace into the man being stalked by the werewolf. 

The first thoughts he detected were those he would expect of anyone in a grocery store, some kind of list of things he needed, random details about products, nothing sinister. He let himself sink a bit deeper, trying to split his attention with what he was supposed to be gathering according to Sam. He continued to get nothing more disgusting than a fleeting thought about a young woman he had seen earlier in the day, not even a vague thought about anything that would remotely tip him off to something wrong with the man.

And then he felt it. A feeling that Sam was in trouble, a growing sensation that he needed to be somewhere else this instant. He turned in the direction Sam had gone and quickly found him with his angelic senses. He could immediately tell Sam was still in the store, but that he had gone from covert operation to finding a way to hide and try to slip away from someone. Gabriel understood that he needed to be careful to get Sam out of the situation, if he wasn’t cautious he could cause more problems then be a help. They were surrounded by humans who had no knowledge of the supernatural, they needed to get out of this store before getting into a fight.

With a quick check in with the location of the werewolf, he understood the mistake he had made. By only focusing on the potential victim he had failed to watch where the wolf had gone. The creature was now stalking Sam, a man any supernatural creature would quickly be able to recognize as a hunter. The young man had been taught so many habits by his father that made him stand out even more then most hunters. And the Werewolf had picked up on the danger, even though Sam had tried to play it cool.

Damn, damn, damn. 

He moved as quickly as he could through the store, not wanting to alert any of the Humans that anything was amiss. He certainly didn’t want the police involved. He doubted either of their identities would hold up to a police investigation. When he found Sam the young man looked completely calm.

“No good chips?”

“I got over there and nothing looked good,” Gabriel shrugged, “Maybe something will strike my fancy later.”

“Gabe,” Sam sighed dramatically, though the Archangel didn’t really have time to appreciate the fact that Sam had decided to go with a nickname before he absolutely knew they needed to move.

“I think we need to head out.” Gabriel glanced around them spotting their target who had become their hunter. He needed to get them out of there so that he could actually protect his charge. Every instinct in him was screaming to get them out of there before something terrible went down.

“Really? We just got here! I was hoping for some food.” Sam whined, not really looking at Gabriel.

“Sam,” Gabriel dropped his voice into a dangerous tone, “We need to go now.”

Sam looked up at him at that point, spotting all the things he had been missing over the last few moments. “Ok.”

Gabriel led the way back through the store, on full alert this time, spotting several things he hadn’t noticed when he had been more interested in their potential victim. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

There were several creatures who were guarding the door, clearly sealing the trap. He reached out quickly with his trickster senses, the place was warded against those powers, shifting to the ones that he held innately he found there were no wards for those. That at least gave them a slight advantage, clearly this group thought them a pagan and a human. He couldn’t help but kick himself for not paying closer attention. He’d been so focused on the potential victim he forgot to look at all the elements in play, and now they were going to have to work their way out of this situation.

This was why he wasn’t supposed to get involved with his charge, he let his guard down, decided playing by human rules was the way to go, losing sight of what was important. He was supposed to be keeping Sam out of trouble and here he had led him right into a trap designed to go after his pagan side. 

He was half surprised to see Sam pull a gun out of his waist band, clearly the kid had been at least slightly prepared for all of this.

“Are they all werewolves?” Sam asked quietly.

“Only the one,” Gabriel whispered back, “That ones part witch too.”

“Right,” Sam cocked the gun, flicking off the safety, “Any plan.”

“Not really.” Gabriel let his pagan side wrap around them both, oozing power in a display that would mask his angelic side and be a show of protection.

 

“Well, well, well.” The Werewitch stalked towards them, “What have we caught in our little trap?”

Neither Sam nor Gabriel spoke in response. There was no need, it was better to wait and see what their opponent was after. Gabriel kept his eyes on everything happening around them. There was no one watching them as far as he knew from the angelic side of things, and besides a bit of demonic posturing, there wasn’t really much going on from that side of things yet either, but better safe than sorry. It also didn’t help that these creatures didn’t know his other side, and playing his cards too soon could be an issue.

“A little pagan god playing with his food.” The creature continued, tossing a spell pouch up in the air before catching it again, “Odd that you let him keep a weapon that could easily kill you.”

“You clearly don’t know who I am.” Gabriel puffed up, letting his power wrap around him to show his nature as the god Loki. 

“You aren’t as scary as you think you are.”

“Neither are you.” Gabriel shrugged, “But you don’t know much about me if you think this pretty little thing is food.”

“He’s human, what else are you going to use him for little god?”

“Sex.” The Werewitch let his gaze travel back to the human who had only looked at Gabriel for a split second in shock before training his focus back on to the pair who were guarding the door..

“He is very pretty, though last I heard you were far more interested in the fairer sex.”

“It is nice to mix things up, and anyway, not all rumors are true.” Gabriel shifted to keep the creature in his view as it paced slowly in front of him. Waiting for an opening was such a tedious task sometimes, but sometimes games must be played.

“Humm, true. Especially the one where you were quite slippery and difficult to catch, clearly the pretty giant is enough to distract you from such simple games as mine.”

“Creating a whole store full of people was quite the illusion, very detailed too.” Gabriel complimented him, “I almost fell for it too, but it was just off.”

“Didn’t need it to be perfect to get you far enough in.” The Werewitch smirked, and Gabriel saw his move.

“And now I’m here, what’s your move?” Gabriel shifted his stance ready to pull his blade to attack in a moment.

“Where’s the fun in telling?”

“Well, that does put a damper on this conversation.” Gabriel let his blade appear glittering in his hand, startling the guards and the wolf. Rotating it with a flick of his wrist he shifted into a fighting stance letting the air of being a simple pagan god dissipate like smoke. “Now, rules are rules, the beauty before you is mine to protect, and I certainly can't let you go running off to go tell anyone I’m around. Sam, now.”

Gabriel launched himself towards the Werewitch who had no protection but the spell he was tossing to himself. With a few quick flicks of his wrist the creature was dead to the sound of Sam taking out the other two with a few quick shots. 

For all the panic the whole thing was rather anticlimactic, leaving Gabriel feeling almost disappointed.

“When have you ever been one to follow the rules Gabe?” Sam chuckled.

“Well, there have been a few times. I mean, keeping you alive hasn’t exactly been a simple task, and one that technically is me following the rules.”

“Right,” Sam laughed at the angel, “Any idea why he decided to trap us?”

“No, clue. Don’t care either really, aside from destroying his hideout, I’m ready to go back home.”

“You owe me lunch.”

“I do? Don’t I feed you all the time?” Gabriel looked at the man next to him oddly “we ate before we came here.”

“Perhaps, but I’m hungry and you keep interrupting my meals on this hunt.” Sam smirked, “And you told him you were keeping me around for sex.”

“So? It was about the only other thing he was going to believe, you are rather pretty.”

“I don’t just put out you know.” Gabriel sputtered as Sam walked away from him, he wasn’t expecting the kid to proposition him, seriously, the line that would be crossing. “Are you coming?”

“Seriously?” Muttering to himself about impertinent young men who were way too hard to keep safe from their own disrespect for danger.


	11. Chapter 11

“You know, I wouldn’t be opposed to being in that kind of a relationship with you.”

“Huh?” Gabriel glanced at him from where he was trying to plant evidence so that this house fire looked like an accident and not arson.

“We already live together, most of my friends think we are banging on the regular anyway, we wouldn’t even have to say anything.”

“No, no, no, no, no. I am a lot of things but a cradle robber is not one of them.”

“I’m not a child any more, Gabe.” Sam argued, though Gabriel just shot him a look that said he was so full of shit. “In human time I am an adult, fully consenting and everything.”

“Don’t let my brother hear you say that.”

“You aren’t your brother and you certainly don’t need me to be your vessel.”

“Yes, but your existence isn’t even a blip in mine.”

“Oh please, you know very well you have the power to take care of that problem.”

“Just because I can doesn’t mean that it's a good idea.”

“Neither was deciding to show yourself to me in the first place, or any of the other misadventures we’ve been on together so far.”

“Just because,” Gabriel started before Sam cut him off.

“You can start in on rules and the like but we both know that they aren’t exactly binding. You make your own, you are dead to heaven. I’m not asking you to fight your brothers, I’m not asking you to get involved, but you know perfectly well our existing bond is going to keep you involved, you can’t not be because you have to keep me safe.”

“You are playing a dangerous game that you don’t know all the rules to.”

“Gabriel, neither of us exist. I certainly don’t exist in any system, my father moved us and kept using fake names for us, I am only half certain that Sam Winchester is my real name, I’m not even sure a birth certificate exists for that person. I had to falsify half my records to even get into the university to begin with. Neither of us get to play by the rules that are laid out by the living. We both try, and will keep trying but when does that end?”

“When the war starts.” Gabriel looked at him for a long time. “I will think about it.”

Sam kept quiet while the pair walked around the burning property, one they had never set foot inside, not wanting to know what it contained. Gabriel knew the kid was right. Neither of them were real in the way others got to be. He was an Archangel in hiding, pretending to be dead by creating a persona of a pagan god. While it allowed him to exist in a fashion he wasn’t anything like the being he used to be.

He used to have a family, but they were no longer his to entirely claim. He used to have a purpose, one he didn’t understand anymore. What he did understand was that, while it broke all the rules, he had fallen for the tall human he was supposed to protect. And it was no longer about guarding him, keeping him company through the transition into being a civilian or anything else he had told himself in the beginning. Even though this was something others might describe as forbidden, or inappropriate, it was something he wasn’t interested it giving up.

Not that he thought Sam would back down if he tried to walk away. 

Damn humans and their stubbornness.


	12. Chapter 12

Gabriel was watching daytime TV to avoid doing any more work on his massive essay that was due in two days. Truth be told he could just snap it into existence if he really needed to, but he was about half way done with it and he needed a break. Doing things the human way was incredibly annoying sometimes. 

Sam clattered through the front door, and looked incredibly flustered when he saw Gabe lounge on the sofa.

“How was class, Sammy?”

“Don’t call me that.” Sam huffed, “Aren’t you supposed to be working on your paper?”

“Thanks for reminding me. I managed to get away from it for a whole two minutes.” Gabe rolled his eyes.

“Is it going ok?”

“Yeah, fine. Maybe not as quick as I'd like it to, though anything short of snapping it into existence is too slow really.”

“True, but you are so used to doing it the slow way you’d get no satisfaction from doing it any other way.” Sam flopped onto the sofa next to Gabriel and tried to pretend that everything was perfectly fine. Things had been busy since they had got back from their last hunt and they hadn’t had time to talk about everything that had gotten said the last day of their trip. Of course it could be that Sam was avoiding Gabriel rather then face things. 

“Whatever,” Gabriel huffed, knowing that Sam was right, but also avoiding the question that he had asked when the young man came in the door all flustered. “You never answered my question.”

“I didn’t?” Sam asked, his voice betraying the fact that he did in-fact know he hadn’t. 

“Yeah, how was class? It seems to have gotten you all frustrated.” Gabriel pushed

“Class was actually fine. It was after class that was a bit of a problem.”

“Oh?”

“We got invited to a start of school party.”

“Aren’t you the popular kid.”

“As a couple.”

“You say that like it’s a new thing, we had this conversation like two weeks ago, the one where you stopped talking to me because you think I’m definitely turning you down cause you’re human.”

“Asshole!” Sam burst out, much to Gabriel’s surprise, “I haven’t been avoiding it, you said you’d think about it. You haven’t said a word. I’ve been giving you time. So it’s not my fault that we’ve been dancing around the subject.”

“Oh.” Gabriel thought back to the conversation and realized Sam was right, he was such an asshole. 

“So, since my classmates still haven’t changed their mind that since we are rooming together we are banging, you want to actually answer me or just continue pretending everything is normal?”

“It’s complicated, Sammy.”

“First, I hate being called Sammy. Second, why is it complicated?”

“It is very complicated, and not just because we are two different species. There are rules. I understand that there are good reasons not to follow them but breaking those habits isn’t easy. Also, even without the rules there is my brother to contend with, you know the one who wants your body so he can fight the apocalypse.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m never going to say yes to him. With everything I know, I have no reason to. I love my brother with my whole heart and saying yes would hurt both of you. I have far more reasons to say no, and never let the apocalypse happen.”

“You say that now, but you have no idea what lengths they will go to to get you to say yes.”

“You are afraid.”

“More than you can even imagine.” 

“I’m terrified too. There are so many big things looming on the horizon, and I feel like if I stop and look at them too long I will never be able to move again. Knowing they are there and not being able to stop their unpredictable creep towards us makes it almost worse.” Sam paused takin in the way Gabriel was looking at him, “but I’d take knowing, and knowing you over anything.”

“I can’t make it go away.”

“Neither can I.”

“I needed to think about all of this, sometimes the inevitability of things makes it difficult for me to see the present.” Gabriel looked down at his hands, “I also sometimes forget the human scale of everything, my time frame for everything is so much bigger. But I knew the first time you brought this up I was never going to say no.”

“Thanks for leaving me hanging.” Gabriel huffed a laugh at the faux indignation of the human sitting next to him.

“Time isn’t one of my strong suits, I’m much better at pranks and such.” 

“Where does that leave us?”

“Well, it leaves us at the place of me saying yes, let’s try this relationship thing.”

“Awesome!” Gabriel smiled at the enthusiasm, he pulled Sam to him, wanting to kiss him but not knowing if the young man was ready for that exactly.

“Can I kiss you?” He asked, Sam looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Yes,” his response hissed out as he pushed himself into a better position. Gabriel gently brought their mouths together, a hand finding its way to Sam's face.

Sam gently pulled back, “You are amazing.”

“I’m not.”

 

“You are to me.” Gabriel rolled his eyes at Sam’s sappy comment, but ignored it kissing the young man again. “Do you want to go to the party?” 

“Probably. It’s this weekend and I’m all for avoiding writing this paper for a while.”

“Guess that means we aren’t going on that hunting trip like I hoped.” Sam sounded only vaguely disappointed.

“The monsters will still be there in a week.” Gabriel laughed kissing Sam again, not even remotely tired of the feeling, he almost couldn’t believe this was happening. He had not had a partner he could remotely trust in eons and certainly not on who knew as much about him as Sam did. It was an amazing feeling to know it was reciprocal trust.

Sam pulled back and looked at him for a long moment. “I have a very odd question.”

“Uh, ok.” 

“Your father is god right?”

“That’s your question?” Gabriel laughed lightly, he certainly hadn’t been expecting that.

“Not exactly,” Sam shrugged, leaning back, “But they are related.”

“Yes, the being you refer to as God is my creator, father would be the closest translation from enochian.”

“What would his opinion on this be?”

“Are you asking if my father would be ok with our relationship?”

“Yes.”

“Ugh.” Gabriel stood up, and began pacing around the room, “Honestly, I don’t know it’s very complicated. I don’t think he would care a great deal one way or another, though nephalem are forbidden, it’s not exactly a problem in our relationship. Really the bigger issue would be if it gets in his way about the whole apocalypse thing. The truth is he ran away as much as I did, if it turns out to be too much of a problem I’m fairly certain that he knows where we are.”

“That was not exactly what I was expecting,” Sam looked at Gabriel in surprise. And then it dawned on Gabriel that Sam was thinking about the whole thing in Human terms.

“Oh! Right, human politics. He doesn’t care about things like who you love, so long as you are good to them. He certainly doesn’t care like some humans seem to think he does. It certainly wouldn’t be his first problem with our relationship.” Gabriel flopped back onto the sofa, “All of the morals around homosexuality are human constructs, he loves humanity but morals aren’t something he ever really understood in the same way humans do.”

“Ah, I suppose that makes sense.”

“Are you concerned about your father?”

“No, he kicked me out, his opinion doesn’t get to count in all of this. I worry more about what Dean thinks.”

“I suppose he did more to raise you then your father did.”

“Yes.”

“From what I remember seeing, and damn does that make me feel old, your brother will be fine, eventually with all of this.”

“That’s oddly comforting Gabe.” Sam smiled at the Archangel, “Now where were we.”

Gabriel smirked, throwing his leg over Sam’s lap, glad to get to focus on the fun side of all of this rather than all the crazy family shit that seemed to permeate everything that the pair did. “If I remember correctly, I was about here and we were definitely making out.”

“Good.” Sam pulled him into a kiss, leaving the subject of family and hunting for another time.


	13. Chapter 13

Sam woke to a crashing sound in the living room, next to him Gabriel sat upright looking as surprised as Sam felt. 

“Whose there?” Sam whispered to his angel.

“Your brother.”

“You sure?” Gabriel rolled his eyes at Sam’s question. His brother wasn’t a being he was going to mistake for anyone else. 

“Very.”

“How the heck did he get in, you have this place warded against everything.”

“It mostly has to do with intentions, he doesn’t wish you or me harm.”

“He just broke into an apartment that doesn’t actually exist.” Sam sounded a bit offended by the whole thing, like Gabriel wasn’t properly protecting them from things that might actually be dangerous.

“Semantics.” Gabriel shrugged.

“Should go see what he wants.” Sam rolled out of bed and grabbed pants and a shirt not wanting to see his brother for the first time in years naked. 

“Probably.” Gabriel leaned back in the bed watching his lover of almost two years dress to go face the first of their families to find them. “You want me to come with you?”

“Yeah.” Sam walked out of the room flipping on the lights as he went. “You could have knocked.” He stated from the doorway to the kitchen.

“Could’ve.” Dean looked a bit surprised that Sam didn’t seem in the least bit surprised at who was in his home in the middle of the night. 

“What’re you doing here?” Sam asked, looking his older brother over. He looked much the same as he had the last time he had seen him, same leather jacket, jeans and a t-shirt. But something about him seemed a bit older, a bit less of a scared kid and more of a young man with not enough to live for.

“Dads went on a hunting trip and he hasn’t been back in a few days.” Dean told him matter of factly.

“So?” Sam was not at all interested in what was going on with the man that had kicked him out of the house four years ago.

“I need help finding him.” Dean looked a bit more like the young man that Sam remembered when he left, lost and scared.

“Hey, Sam, do I need to set up the guest room?” Gabriel slipped up close to him, easily settling up against his side. Sam looked down at him and smiled, knowing perfectly well that the Archangel didn’t have to go set the room up, all he had to do was snap his fingers, but Dean didn’t know that.

“I would like to get a few more hours of sleep.”

“Sounds good” Gabriel pressed a kiss to Sams lips driving home the point that they were definitely together and Dean wasn’t miss reading their closeness in anyway.

“Wait, Wait, Wait.” Dean looked at his brother and Gabriel, who barely paid him any mind slipping past him down the hall opposite their bedroom to the empty room that had once been Sam’s all those years before.

“I’m waiting.” Sam raised an eyebrow at his brother, having a very good idea of what his brother was freaking out about.

“You’re banging a dude.”

“Dean!” Sam played offended, “when two people love each other very much and have been dating for years they don’t bang, they make love.”

“Whatever, Bitch.”

“Jerk.”

“Fine, So you’re seeing that guy.”

“I have a name,” Gabriel sung from behind Dean. “The guest bedroom is ready for you.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“Yes, I’m seeing Gabe. We’ve been together for a while.”

“Right.” Dean looked a bit lost. To be honest Sam couldn’t blame him. Dean had come to ask for help finding their father, a man who definitely wouldn’t take kindly to Sam’s relationship with Gabriel. 

“I’m going back to bed. Do what you want.” Sam turned and headed back into the bedroom.

“Well, that was unexpected.” Gabriel commented as he flopped back onto the bed.

“Yeah.”

“You ok?”

“Hard to tell. So much has happened since I left.” Sam looked lost for a moment before his gaze snapped back to the Archangel laying on the bed, “What the hell are we going to tell him about you? About hunting?”

“Hunting will be a far easier conversation then letting him know I’m not remotely human.” That had been one thing that hadn’t really crossed Sam’s mind years ago when they had gotten together. Well, that’s not exactly true, he had thought about it quite a bit, but never in a way that remained him that he had grown up believing that all creatures were bad, and should be destroyed. Gabriel had changed all of that for Sam.

“That’s one way to put it.”

“Sleep, we will deal with it in a couple hours.”


	14. Chapter 14

Sam walked back into the kitchen a few hours later, stretching and wishing he’d gotten uninterrupted sleep. He started puttering around the kitchen getting breakfast together when Gabriel joined him, a soft peck on the back of Sam’s shoulders as he squeezed past to get to the pot of coffee. 

“Is this why you left?” Dean broke into the pair’s comfortable domestic morning routine.

“Good morning to you too, Dean,” Sam shot at his brother, “is what why I left?”

“You know, cause your like this?” Dean gestured helplessly between Sam and Gabe.

“Seriously?” Sam grabbed the cup that Gabe offered him filled with his coffee just the way he liked it. He couldn’t help but feel slightly amused at his brother’s inability to say what he was implying. 

“I know dad isn’t the most supportive guy but ya could’ve told me.”

“Oh, Dean, I didn’t leave cause I’m gay.” Sam sighed at the cup in his hands, “I mean I am and I doubt dad ever understood why I didn’t go skirt chasing, but I really left to go to college. My relationship with Gabe is simply a bonus.”

“You’re too sweet.” Gabriel chimed next to him.

“Right.” Dean sounded a bit unsure as he spoke. “I need help finding dad.”

“I’m not coming with you.” Sam sighed, “I can’t. I need to stay here and finish school.”

“Sam, he’s been missing for days. He was on a hunting trip.”

“I didn’t say we wouldn’t help. I just need to stay here for now. We will help as soon as we are both done with school in a few months.”

“You keep saying we.”

“And you keep assuming I don’t know what you and your dad do for a career.” Gabriel snapped back. “We both would like to finish school. I know that seems like a strange thing to you, but it’s important to us.”

“You told him about hunting.”

“He already knew about it.”

“You’re a hunter.” Dean asked Gabriel in surprise 

“Only in that I hunt with your brother. But not before that, no. Let’s just say he makes me a better person and the rest of that will just have to wait until we know we can trust you with the information.”

“Fine.” Dean huffed, “and how are you going to help me from here?”

“We will do research for you, as much as we can. Make sure you have the tools to fight everything you come across.”

“Right.” Dean looked a bit lost and and quite a bit put out. 

“I know it’s not what you were hoping for, but for right now it’s what we’ve got. Gabe needs to finish his dissertation and I’ve got another semester before I graduate. Once that’s done we can and probably will hit the road with you.”

“Right then.” Dean took a deep breath and began relaying the information he had about the case his father had taken right before his disappearance.

“You don’t have much to go on.” Sam ran a hand through his hair, “Any ideas?”

“It could be a couple things, ghosts, monsters, anything that likes playing with it’s food.” Gabriel shrugged, “Honestly, we need more information or to get closer to it. Since we aren’t leaving here we will need information about the town and the victims.”

“I can do that.” Dean replied. “Sam, can we talk?”

“Of course,” Sam gestured to the living room. 

“Without your boyfriend.”

“I’ll change and hit the library, need to get some writing time in.” Gabriel dressed and let himself out the front door, always making sure that he could keep a sharp eye on his boyfriend.

“What did you want to talk about.” Sam asked

“Are you sure that Gabriel is safe?”

“You mean like is it safe to have him in my life knowing all my secrets and me knowing his. He is as safe as can be.”

“He seems kinda odd.”

“So do you, to people who know nothing about your life.” Sam looked pointedly at his brother who had raised him, nearly dropped out of high school and now drifted around the country hunting monsters that most people thought were myths.

“Why are you both so secretive about his past?”

“It’s none of your business and you are going to have to understand a few things about the world we live in before we share.”

“Like what?”

“Not everything dad taught us is true, it was and is his truth, but that doesn’t mean that’s how the world actually works. I can’t really tell you more then that. I can tell you that the Yellow eyed demon isn’t the biggest issue, but more then that is going to have to wait. You are asking for secrets that you need to prove to us you can handle.” Sam sighed, he knew his brother would be even more curious now then he had been before. But he couldn’t make himself stop talking. He wanted Dean to know all of this, but now wasn’t the time even if he was trying to ask. “Let us help you on a few cases, let us all get comfortable with each other, then lets come back to this.”

“Fine, I don’t like it though.”

“I don’t really need you to like it, just like my relationship with Gabe, I just need you to accept it.”

“Right.” Dean slapped his hands on his knees. “I will head out to the city and we can see from there about what’s causing the problems and see if I can find any leads on dad.”

“Keep in touch, we can research anything you need us to.”

“Alright.” Dean smiled, “even if you are keeping secrets I’m glad to see you are doing alright.”

“Better than alright.” Sam pulled Dean in for a hug, “Next time you swing by, knock. The guest bed is all yours though.”

“Thanks. I’ll be in touch.” And with that Dean was out the front door, leaving Sam wondering if this is what the beginning of the apocalypse looked like.


End file.
